Heathrow Airport, UK

Category: Travel, Tourism & Leisure
Advertiser: BAA
Product/Service: HEATHROW AIRPORT

The Strategy After much discussion with BAA (the owners of Heathrow), our agency convinced the corporation to appoint the first ever airport writer-in-residence to tell the story of a week at Heathrow.

The appointment would generate media headlines around the world, but the resulting book would serve as its own media and tell the real story of Heathrow – humanising the airport by capturing its emotion, the tens of thousands of people who work there, and the 67 million passengers who pass through it each year. Alain de Botton, one of the world’s most respected modern philosophers and essayists, was selected to the writer-in-residence post.

Mr de Botton was given unprecedented access to all areas of the airport and full creative control over the finished book – a bold move by BAA, as Heathrow was effectively opened up for literary critique, but one that gave instant credibility to the project.